Robbins Strong Papers

Collection

Identifier: RG 30-215

Staff Only

Scope and Contents

The Robbins Strong papers primarily consist of the six photographic albums and five manuscripts that detail twentieth-century China. The collection covers almost exclusively Strong’s prolific career in China as an Oberlin-in-Shansi representative and as an active Christian missionary (1930s-1960s). However, the collected works face several shortcomings in shedding insight into Strong’s personal career. Most of his correspondence between friends and family were written under strict censorship regulations and his autobiographical sketch is condensed into a mere four pages.

Of significance to Oberlin’s institutional history with China are the six photographic albums that capture life at Oberlin Village in Shansi Province during the 1934- ca. 1950s. The intimate photographs of trips to Northern and Central China accompanied by Carl Huber, Raymond Tyson Moyer (1899-1993) and Dorothy Moyer (1904-1989) allude to close relationships that his correspondence and autobiographical sketch do not account for. Most importantly, Strong’s photo albums capture and preserve images of other Shansi representatives in Oberlin Village and at the Agricultural Department.

The five manuscripts (typescript, dated) by Robbins Strong include the immaculate diary he kept as an Oberlin-in-Shansi representative entitled “Three Transitional Years (1934-1937)- Life in Shansi, China.” In three years, Strong witnessed the foundation of modern Communist China, and noted in his diary his thoughts and feelings on the Communist’s Long March into Shansi (1936), Chiang Kai-shek’s attempt to revitalize Chinese tradition with the New Life Movement (1934), and increasing Japanese pressure in Northern China. Strong recorded his reactions to a Western communist country in “Russia 1937,” which in many respects was a continuation of “Three Transitional Years.” His MA thesis “Christianity and China- A Study of Church and State,” 1938, critically examined the role of Christianity in post-Boxer Rebellion (1900) China. Although Strong did not record diaries in the years to follow, he compiled “Ten Tempestuous Years- The Stronghold in China,” 1940-1950 and “Post-Asian Strongholds,” 1950-1980--both are a collection of short essays and letters of correspondence from friends and family. In his later years, Strong noted that because these documents were written under strict censorship regulations, his correspondence did not accurately reflect his political ideology and personal agenda of the time.

Dates

Creation: 1934-1989, undated
Other: Date acquired: 1990 October 29

Conditions Governing Access

Unrestricted.

Biographical Sketch

Robbins Strong, reverend, educator, and scholar, dedicated the majority of his life to conducting missionary work in East Asia, Africa, and Europe. Strong was born to Tracy Strong (1887-1968) and Edith Robbins Strong (1885-1981) on November 24, 1912 in Seattle, Washington. His parents, both OC ’08, were also passionate Christians. His father joined the staff of the World Alliance of YMCAs in 1923, relocating the family to Geneva, Switzerland, through East Asia. In Geneva, he attended local primary and secondary schools, where at an early age he became bilingual in English and French. Strong relocated to the United States in 1930, where he began his undergraduate education at Oberlin College.

As an Oberlin-in-Shansi representative of OC 1934, Strong spent three years in China teaching English at the Oberlin Shansi Memorial Schools in Taiku, Shansi Province, China. He returned to Oberlin College for the academic year 1937-1938 and enrolled in Oberlin’s Graduate School of Theology where he earned a Master’s Degree in 1938 and a Divinity Degree from Yale University in 1940. He then served on the First World Youth Conference held in Amsterdam the summer of 1939, and returned to Yale just a few weeks before WWII began in Europe.

Strong married Katherine Burr Stiven on September 2, 1939. After spending their first year at Yale University, they were commissioned in the fall of 1940 as missionaries by the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions to teach in Northern China, which was then under Japanese occupation. Increasing Japanese pressure in China sent Strong and his wife in to an internment camp in Shantung Province in 1941. It was there that their first son Tracy was born.

The Strongs were released to return to the United States in 1943, where they settled back at Oberlin. After the war, he relocated with his family to China in the spring of 1947 and was granted a position with the International Committee of the YMCAs of the USA in Nanking, China in 1949. The Communists eventually ousted Strong and his American colleagues in 1950, forcing them to relocate northeast to Seoul, Korea, and later to Japan.

Strong’s family preceded him to the Unites States, where they eventually settled in New Jersey. However, Strong remained active in his professional endeavors. As a Secretary for Intermovement Aid and Extension for the World Alliance of YMCAs in Geneva, Switzerland (1954-1962), Strong expanded his missionary work to establishing YMCAs in Africa and Asia. In 1962, Strong joined the United Church Board for World Ministries in New York City, which required numerous missionary trips to Europe (1962-1967). Five years later, he joined the World Council of Churches in Geneva to work with the Commission on World Mission and Evangelism (1967-1978) until he retired January 1, 1978.

Strong died on June 29, 1999, in Pitzer Lodge of Pilgrim Place in Claremont, California. His wife, Katherine Burr Stiven Strong, died on October 6, 1999. They were both survived by their three children, Tracy Strong (OC 1963), Jeanne Strong (OC 1965), and John Strong (OC 1969).

SOURCES CONSULTED

Oberlin College Archives. Accession 1990/106. Biographical Sketch, Robbins Strong.

Oberlin College Archives. Record Group 28. Alumni File, Robbins Strong.

Note written by May Tran.

Extent

1.60 Linear Feet

Language of Materials

English

Additional Description

Method of Acquisition

The Robbins Strong papers were donated to Oberlin College Archives in two accessions. The manuscripts (1990/106) were donated in 1990 by Robbins Strong, and the photographic albums (1995/030) were received in 1995 from the Shansi Memorial Association.

Accruals and Additions

Accession Nos: 1990/106, 1995/030.

Related Materials

Papers of Oberlin College Presidents Henry Churchill King (RG 2/6), 1873-1934, and Ernest Hatch Wilkins (RG 2/7), 1927-46. Papers of Lydia Lord Davis (RG 30/80), 1862-1944; Florence Fitch (RG 30/37), 1807-1951; Alice Moon Williams (RG 30/58), 1883-1952; John Griffith Olmstead (30/2), c. 1902-1930; Everett D. Hawkins (30/130), 1927-1972; Herbert and Josephine Van Meter (30/288), c. 1930s-1987; Raymond T. Moyer (30/260), 1921-1992; Ellsworth C. Carlson (30/176), 1935-2000; Paul L. Corbin (30/49), 1886-1937; and records of the YMCA-YWCA (RG 29), ca. 1900-1965; and the Oberlin Band of Student Volunteers for Foreign Missions (RG 19/3/1), 1886-1927.